The present invention relates to gimbal mounts for seekers and pertains particularly to an improved gimbal mount providing a large look angle.
Aircraft, both manned and unmanned, utilize information serving or seeker devices, such as antennas, IR/UV sensors, optical devices and the like for transmitting and receiving information. These are typically mounted for orientation within a hemispherical zone for either specific directional orientation or sweeping movement.
Many different gimbal mountings of sensing devices are known in the art, and various approaches to gimbal mounting of such sensing devices on airframes and aircraft have been attempted in the past. Because weight and space are a premium on such aircraft, it is essential that the mechanisms and instrumentation of such devices be as compact and lightweight as possible. It is also desirable that the mass of moving parts be kept to a minimum in order to reduce control complications and other problems.
High performance tactical missiles require seeker heads which can achieve look angles greater than 60 degrees for effective tracking of high speed, high altitude crossing targets. These missiles also need gimballed multiple sensors and/or additional processing electronics which reduce the achievable look angle on traditional gimbals. Historically, gimbal look angles have been restricted to about 60 degrees due to structural stiffness limitations, sensor beam blockage problems and sensor/servo control component packaging volume constraints.
It is also desirable that the seeker gimbal assemblies have means to provide stabilization by decoupling the seeker from body motion.
We have developed a three degree of freedom gimbal with roll, pitch, and yaw combined with a unique pitch and yaw drive concept that overcomes many of the aforesaid problems of the prior art. This arrangement provides for 70 degree look angles, 70 percent gimballed mass for sensor packaging, and 90 percent decoupling of body motion.